Toy, kindergarten appliance, and the like



T. MATHEWS. TOY, KINDERGARTEN'APPLIANCE, AND THE LIKE.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 31.19%8.

1,383,181. Patented Mar. 9,1920.

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APPLICATION FILED JULY 31,1928.

Patented Mar. 9,1920.

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T. MATHEWS.

TOY, KINDERGARTEN APPLIANCE, AND THE LIKE.

. APPLICATION FILED JULY 31. 19:8.

1,333, 181 Patented Mar. 9,1920.

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-To all whom it may concern 1' i 1 Be it"known that I, THOMAS MATH WS;

subject of-the King of Great Britain,gresid-' fence." W111 be made to the accompanying ingat Leicestelg in the county'of Leicester, England, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in or Relating to Toys,

Kindergarten Appliances. and the like.of which thefol-lowing is a specification, ref-c erencebeing had therein to the accompanymg drawing. 9 a T his invention relates to toys. kindergarten appliances and the like. and concerns those of the kindmade of cardboard or simi lar material and constructed to fold-0r col-.

lapse to a substantially flat or compact con- 7 dition when not in use.

Y vThe invention comprises ac'scenic base or background with 'orilwithout some collapsible structure thereonpand a number .ofisubsidiarv devices to be used in conjunction with-the said 'base or'back as willqbe hereinafterdescribedx I f V A The novelty of: the invention resides more particularlv in the character and formation of the subsidiary devices; These and the like) cutout in the Hat and printed or, otherwise got up on both sides so as to be reversible. two or more ofxsuch figures being vconne ted together bv means which allow-them to lie close together fare to facerin a collapsed condition'a-nd also admit of limited separation of said con,- nected figures whereby they are rendered capable of standing erectj A A further featu e of the dex'iccs may be that the connected figures 'difler from each other.such for instance as regards attitude. shape andlso on. the purpose of this beinq'that one side of'such device will give a different eflect, from the other and thus enable the general efi'cct obtained by the whole of vthe dei'i esto be varied.

The limited separation of the connected fimi es to brin rthe devices into a self supfor them .to beused separa elv. in which case the individual figures will have combined with them a sup orting device such as a small wire cli which when appliedv to the lower'edsre ,will enable thefigmre to stand alone; V'Such separate figures; will however,

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still retain t'liebefore mentioned-character istic feature of, reversibility. r

I further describing the invention refer drawing wherein a concrete example in the? form of a Noahs ark Itoyzis illustrated.-

-In the drawing referred to Figurefl is a perspective view. ofthe'fold-j- 5 .is a s milar view showing the reverse side of the same, devices. 7 5

Figs. 6 and 7 show lin perspective otherv eimmpls he connected subsidiary 1 vices. or

vic for individual use.-

"" 9 is a persiiertive,view of'a: con-n I venient vform of wire clipior' use'on the separatedevice as shown in Fig.8 to enable Fig". 8

with which is a collapsible st-ructure' rep I res nting a l\ oah s.ark.

The baclwround 2 is 'hin qedlv connecte ed to the base member l -at 3 andis adapted to assumean upright position-Vin use; as

shown and turn downwardin' the direction oflthe row Fig. 3 and, lie-flat with the base. cThis vertical back member. 2 constitute the bac i of the collapsible structure. thefrontof the latter being formedbvam othervertical member 4 hineedly atta hed to theibhse l at 5 and also-adapted to-fold d wn; fi t :in a similar manner to; the ;hack.

The verticalback-member 2 and vertical 100 root member 6 which ishingedlvattached to I said memlg ers.at 7,and,8 respectively and is.

frontmembera areoonnectedat the, top by a centrallvscored erhinged in a longitudinal di ection at 9 so that it may be bent upward to an *angular positionas indicated when the structure is erected but 1s ableto assume lapsed;

Hinnedlv se ured at 1 0 to thesides otthe a fiat condition when the structure-is colthe structure and maintain the latterin the erected position, the said end pieces being formed with sloping top sides 12 to'fit Lin-- derneath the roof memberfi anddetermine its angular shape. By pulling out the end .pieces 11. (in the direction indicated by ai' v rows in Fig. 2') into alinement" yvith the front member 4 the hole stru ture in- "cluding the back 2 canbe turneddoivn forwardly (as indicated-bythe arrows in Fig. 3) and caused to assume'a flatcondition on the base 1. The end pieces 11 may have wholes-13 therein for the insertion of the fingel to pull-them outward. The base member '1 is hinged at 14- (Fig. 1) wherebythe forward part .la'ot same 7 oan. be'folded backward (as indicated by the arrow) underneath the part 1 to'reduce the base to a small compass.

1 The base 1,1 back 2 and colla sible structure are appropriately printed; shaped 1 iary devices are cut out of cardboard and are; printed or fotherw seigotrup similarly and got up to represent parts in general accordance with the scheme being carried out.

Foruse with a'main part such as just described, some" of the subsidiary devices may represent animals such as shown in Figs. A

and'5 while others represent pieces of scencry and trees as .in Figs. .6' and 7 'or-charac= ters as shown in the example Fig. 8. The figures or-parts 15" constituting the subsidon both sides so as to be reversible asrepresentediby 'Figsml and 5'v'vhich show re spectively the opposite sides of the same device. r

V I The subsidiary devices may as shown in i Figs; 4' to 7 be composed of a number of the" figures or parts 15 connected together, for mstance'the figures or parts may; be connected inpairs as in "Figs. 4, 5 and 6.01

' 1 three figures or parts may be connected as represented. in Fig. 7 to constitute the de vice.

Conveniently when two or more figures or parts 151 are connefted together to con;

stitutea subsidiary device, the connecting means consists'of an intermediate folding 7 distance piece 16 Whose sides form a parallelogram suchas shown in Figs. 4 to 7; This may be made'ofcardboard scored and bent I ship While at thesame time they can be.

vertically so] that eachfcorner forms a hinge. The figures or parts 16 are secured to oppositejsi'des ofthe parallelogram and are" thus maintained in' parallel relationbroughttogether and moved apart by bending the-piece lta on its hinged corners 17. Or instead of conne ting the parts 15 by a "complet'efour sided piece such as 16 the figuresmay be "onnect'ed by a pair of distance pieces (not shown) consisting of parallel strips hingedly attached at their opposite In some cases more than threeparts I may be connected, or'on the other hand the figures maybe u'sedseparatelyas in Fig. 8.

, ends opposing sides or faces o'f'the figures. Two or'more figures conne. ted in the mannerdescribedso as to be capable of folding fiattogetherand also of beingseparatedto a limited extent whereby they are rendered self (supporting such. figures being similarly printed on both sides so as to be reversibleform very effective subsid i iary devices for the purpose in view seeing that in use, 2'. e1, whenrerecte'd they stand; 7 away from ea ch other in relief and owing to their reversibility can be positioned ,Wltlli: either side to the front or viewed from either side. Further, by using subsidiary devlces wherein the connected figures difter from each. other, such asregards attitude.

shape and. so on as shovvn'in Figs. 4 andm5,

a-more varied effect is obtained when the dev ce is reversed. e V 'iVlth re'gard to the single reversible figures (Fig.8) thesemav be supported by a 7 simple form of Wire chp'or stand l8 such asshownin Fig. 9. p l p The cardboard figure-or character 15 fits between the vertical limbs-I19 the forwardly and rearwardly extending legs. 20 being:dis-

posedhorizontally and serve to keep the fig;

ure upright vvheni its'loweredgeis placed uponthefbase 1. The saidloWer edge may be notched'at'21 to -receive the end 221of the loop of Wire or theclip maybe placed onthe figure in such a position that theend instead of;

22' vvill'be situated at the side underneath thefignre. f e

It will be apparent that the main part and subsidiary devices constructed as hereind'escribed lend themselves to being printed' or'othervvise got upin other Ways than that indicated. For instance the main part;

may be got upto represent a tarmliouse'and farmyard 'or according tofanother embodiment it may represent a jungle scene. the subsidiary devices for use with the'se'p'arts beingof appropriate character; By suitably r-shaping'and getting up the partscomposing thecomplete toy or appllance a" variety of different subjects may be carried out with effective results. I

In some cases the collapsible structure may be omitted from the baseand instead a suitably printedand shaped member such as thefrontfmember' i may be used, this being connected With the ba'kground member by hinged "strips-or distance pieces. or

' th'em'to fold into flat form. g Y

I 'WhatI claim then isg V w J Atoy, kindergarten appliance elf-the like,

comprising a scenic base, abackground hingedly attached thereto, a" collapsible structure combined with said base. and background and consisting of a vertical front member hingedly atached to the base, roof members hingedly connected together and, hingedly attached to the-front and back{ ground members, and hinged end pieces to close the ends of .the structure, said base,

back ground and collapsible'structure being adapted to open to; an erected form for use and to close by folding to athat condition as to be reversible, substantially as described. In testimony whereof I afiix lily-signature inpresence of two witnesses.

THOMASQ M THEWS. Witnesses': i

E. N. LEWIS, GEoRen'Lnsm. 

